The modes, and the question each one asks first
A thinking mode is a named way of approaching a problem: what it looks at, what it asks before anything else, and when it is the wrong tool. This page lists every mode written so far, in its four families, with the opening question of each. Nothing here is for sale.
Unreviewed — agent-drafted
These modules were drafted by a software agent from the sources cited inside them and have not yet been read against the evidence rules. The label below each mode says so per unit, and it comes off a unit when that unit has been read, not when the page is edited. Brain Logic is educational; it is not medical advice and it measures nothing about the person reading it.
Start here, before any of the families
Recommended first, for everyone. Eight modules that start below every mental-models product — at not knowing how to begin.
The Foundation track is free to work through — all 8 modules of it — and it is the on-ramp in front of the three families below rather than a sample of them.
- Starting Point
The move you make when something is heavy and you do not yet know what the problem is.
It asks first: What is the problem, in one sentence, and how would I know it was solved?
- Working It Through
The move you make once the question is written: put it on a page, run it, record it, and stop when stopping is the right answer.
It asks first: What are my options — including doing nothing — and what would change my mind?
Strategic & Commercial
Choosing a direction under uncertainty, and spending a scarce resource on purpose.
- The Strategist
Refuses to start from what should we do, and starts from what game is this, who else is playing, and what do we have that they do not.
It asks first: What am I optimising for — in one sentence?
- The Builder / Operator
Looks for the one place work is waiting, and improves only that, because everywhere else the improvement is invisible from outside.
It asks first: Where does work pile up waiting?
- The Entrepreneur
Prefers bets whose downside is capped and whose upside is open, and spends first on the test that could kill the idea rather than on the one that would flatter it.
It asks first: What is the cheapest thing that could prove me wrong?
- The Investor / Capital Allocator
Starts from what usually happens to people who try this, not from how it would go if it went well, and commits an amount that survives being wrong.
It asks first: What usually happens to people who try this?
- The Negotiator
Knows what it will do if this conversation fails before it starts, and spends the conversation finding out what the other side is actually short of.
It asks first: What will I do if this ends in a no?
- The Decision-Maker
Assumes the plan has already failed and asks why, before committing — and writes down what it expected, so that later it can judge the decision rather than the luck.
It asks first: It is a year from now and this failed. What is the most likely reason?
Analytical & Systems
Working out what is true, and how the system in front of you actually behaves.
- The Scientist
States a claim so that it could be wrong, then goes looking first for the thing that would show it was.
It asks first: What would I expect to see if this were false?
- The Engineer
Cuts a problem into parts that each promise the others something specific, then designs against the one constraint that will not move.
It asks first: Which constraint cannot move?
- The Analyst
Starts from what usually happens to cases like this one, and then moves only as far as the new evidence can actually carry it.
It asks first: Out of how many?
- The Investigator
Builds the timeline before it builds the theory, and writes down two other explanations before it argues for the first one.
It asks first: What else changed at the same time?
- The Systems Thinker
Draws the problem as a loop rather than a line, and looks for the delay that keeps the loop invisible while you are standing inside it.
It asks first: What is this feeding back into?
Creative & Adaptive
Generating alternatives, reframing the problem, and learning fast enough to adapt.
- The Creator
Refuses to generate and judge in the same minute, because the first evaluation sets the standard every later idea is measured against before it is finished.
It asks first: What are ten more?
- The Designer
Restates the problem from the other person's seat before solving it, on the grounds that most stuck work is a good solution aimed at somebody else's question.
It asks first: What is the person on the other side trying to do?
- The Inventor
Goes looking for a field where the shape of your problem is somebody's ordinary Tuesday, and brings back the structure rather than the answer.
It asks first: Who has already solved a version of this?
- The Learner
Refuses to start from what should I study, and starts from what will I be able to do that I cannot do now, then shrinks that to a piece small enough to practise today.
It asks first: What will I be able to do that I cannot do now?
- The Synthesiser
Compresses a pile of material to what it is actually saying, explains it to one named person, and uses the places where the explanation goes vague as the map of what it has not got yet.
It asks first: Where do these disagree, and did I say so?
The sentence this product will not write
Working through a mode gives you a procedure for the kind of problem that mode is about, and a record of how you used it. It is not a measure of the person using it, and nothing here claims that practising one of these changes anything outside the work you do with it.
What a mode might send you to read, and how long each item takes.
Stages, practice and spaced review — and the claim it declines to make.
Free, and it will suggest which area to start with.